PASTOS 2012. ISSN: 0210-1270 PASTOS, 42 (2), 137 - 160 137 FLORA OF THE MEDITERRANEAN BASIN IN THE CHILEAN ESPINALES: EVIDENCE OF COLONISATION I. MARTÍN-FORÉS1, M. A. CASADO1*, I. CASTRO2, C. OVALLE3, A. DEL POZO4, B. ACOSTA-GALLO1, L. SÁNCHEZ-JARDÓN1 AND J. M. DE MIGUEL1 1Departamento de Ecología. Facultad de Biología. Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Madrid (España). 2Departamento de Ecología. Facultad de Ciencias. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Madrid (España). 3Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarias INIA-La Cruz. La Cruz (Chile). 4Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Universidad de Talca. Talca (Chile). *Author for correspondence: M.A. Casado ([email protected]). SUMMARY In Chile’s Mediterranean region, over 18% of plant species are alien. This is particularly noteworthy in some agrosilvopastoral systems such as the espinales, which are functionally very similar to the Spanish dehesas and are of great ecological and socioeconomic interest. In the present paper we analyse Chile’s non-native flora, considering three scales of analysis: national, regional (the central region, presenting a Mediterranean climate) and at community level (the espinales within the central region). We compare this flora with that recorded in areas of the Iberian Peninsula with similar lithological and geomorphological characteristics, and land use. We discuss possible mechanisms that might have been operating in the floristic colonisation from the Mediterranean Basin to Chile’s Mediterranean region. Key words: Alien plants, biogeography, Chile, life cycle, Spain. INTRODUCTION Historically, the transit of goods, domestic animals and people has favoured the flow of wild organisms around the planet (Lodge et al., 2006), a fact that is often associated with the introduction of cultural systems, which have contributed to generating new environmental and socioeconomic scenarios (Le Houérou, 1981; Hobbs, 1998; Grenon and Batisse, 1989). The current globalisation process is increasing landscape changes and ecosystem disruptions by human disturbance and therefore facilitating Bases de datos: http://polired.upm.es/index.php/pastos (España), AGRIS (Italia), CAB Abstracts (Reino Unido), CABI Full Text (Reino Unido), Catálogo LATINDEX (México), DIALNET (España), ICYT Ciencia y Tecnología (España) 138 PASTOS, 42 (2), 137 - 160 PASTOS 2012. ISSN: 0210-1270 Martín-Forés et al. Plant species colonization in Chilean espinales the transit of organisms (Paskoff and Manríquez, 1999; Rouget et al., 2003; Dukes and Monney, 2004; Schwartz et al., 2006). These ‘assisted dispersals’ enable species to cross biogeographical boundaries that have previously limited their distributions. Species that have been transported from one region to another are defined as alien or exotic to that newly occupied region (Richardson et al., 2000). Most of these species fail to establish self-perpetuating populations, but some of them do succeed and become naturalized (Sax and Brown, 2000). Regardless of the factors enabling establishment, the main consequence of this naturalisation is that alien species significantly contribute to the global floristic (taxonomic and phylogenetic) homogenization of regional floras (Winter et al., 2009). Despite the fact that introduction of species increases diversity at short temporal and small spatial scales, in the medium and long term, interactions with native species can lead to extinctions (Pyšek and Richardson, 2006). The net effect will depend upon the spatial and temporal scales considered and on the balance between naturalisations and extinctions (Sax et al., 2002). Nonetheless, the resulting ecological consequence is the coexistence of native species with exotic ones, quite often in the same community. The origin and composition of these novel communities are of great interest to understand their functioning and possible management. Transcontinental naturalisation in Chile’s flora Mediterranean-type ecosystems around the world offer a great chance to compare and understand the mechanisms determining the success of species introduced into a given region (Kruger et al., 1989; Groves and Di Castri, 1991). The different regions presenting a Mediterranean climate have had different environmental histories associated with the density of human populations as well as the time and intensity of the changes that people have caused in the territory. In the Mediterranean Basin, anthropic modification of the landscape is millenary; however, rates of species extinction and naturalisation are low in comparison with other Mediterranean regions (Greuter, 1994). This fact is explained as a process of co-evolution of plants with people (Di Castri, 1981). Conversely, other Mediterranean areas have undergone a rapid change following successive cultural colonisations, some of these relatively recent, a fact that accounts for the current ecological conditions threatening the biodiversity of these areas (Underwood et al., 2009). As with other Mediterranean regions, Chile is recognised as a biodiversity hotspot (Ormazabal, 1993), with high levels of regional and national endemism, possibly related with its biogeographic isolation (Myers et al., 2000). Its flora comprises 5364 native taxa, including species and subspecies (Marticorena and Quezada, 1985; Marticorena and Rodriguez, 1995, 2001) and between 552 and 723 alien species, depending on the PASTOS 2012. ISSN: 0210-1270 PASTOS, 42 (2), 137 - 160 139 Martín-Forés et al. Plant species colonization in Chilean espinales author considered (Arroyo et al., 2000; Castro and Jaksic, 2008). Paradoxically, despite the large amount of alien species present and their early colonisation, Chile has been considered a region that has been less invaded or is in an earlier stage of invasion than other Mediterranean regions of the world (Arroyo et al., 2000; Figueroa et al., 2004; Castro and Jaksic, 2008). The arrival of exotic species to Chile started with the European colonisation in the XVI century (Arroyo et al., 2000; Figueroa et al., 2004), which marked the first deliberate introduction of animals and plants (Montenegro et al., 1991; Jaksic, 1998). The rate of species entry in these early days is unknown, since the initial systematic botanic descriptions of flora date from the XVIII century and were performed by botanists who were more interested in describing the native species than the exotic ones (Gay, 1845-1854; Reiche, 1896-1911). By the end of the XVIII century, numerous exotic species had become naturalised in Chile (Figueroa et al., 2004), such as Cardamine hirsuta L., Medicago polymorpha L., Spartium junceum L. and Bromus hordeaceus L. (Castro et al., 2005). Although this species introduction has not been consistent over time, a rate of two to three species per year is estimated, which is lower than the four to six species recorded for other Mediterranean regions (Groves, 1991; Kloot, 1991, Rejmánek et al., 1991; Wu et al., 2003). Processes and mechanisms in species introduction Changes in land use constitute the main factor determining processes of colonisation and naturalisation of plant species (Le Houérou, 1991; Huston, 1994; Holmgrem et al., 2000). Among the most influential factors, deforestation, fires and particularly agricultural practices have been highlighted (Le Houérou, 1991; Cowling et al., 1996; Williamson, 1996; Hobbs, 1998). With regard to deforestation, although Chile still has one of the biggest areas of temperate forest in South America (Donoso, 1993), much of it has been deforested for pastures or croplands. This process started in the XVI century, although the main boom was during the middle of the XX century, with the expansion and intensification of wheat crops (Echeverría et al., 2006) and the spread of forestry plantations. In relation to fire, unlike other Mediterranean climate areas, fire has not constituted a factor of natural disturbance in Chile (Muñoz and Fuentes, 1989; Gómez- González and Cavieres, 2009), a fact that accounts of the absence of specific adaptations in native species. Although there is evidence of fires of human origin in earliest settlements in the region, around 14 000 years ago, these were not significant until the arrival of the Spanish (Aronson et al., 1998; Aravena et al., 2003; Villa-Martínez et al., 2003). Subsequently, fires became more frequent and intense, and currently about 5000 ha of native scrubland are burnt each year, the vast majority of these fires being 140 PASTOS, 42 (2), 137 - 160 PASTOS 2012. ISSN: 0210-1270 Martín-Forés et al. Plant species colonization in Chilean espinales intentional (Gómez-González and Cavieres, 2009). It has been suggested that plant communities under novel fire regimes are more susceptible to invasion than those under a natural (historical) fire regime (Trabaud, 1991; D’Antonio, 2000). However, different studies that have analysed the effects of fire upon native and non-native Chilean flora appear to indicate that fire is not a relevant factor with regard to favouring non-native species (Keeley and Johnson, 1977; Holmgrem et al. 2000; Gómez-González et al., 2010). Fire does, however, constitute a notable advantage for the establishment of annual plants, which are poorly represented in Chile’s native flora (Arroyo et al., 1995). The implementation of European agricultural culture in the XVI century leaded to big changes in land uses and landscapes in Chile, the extent of which are yet not well known (Turner et al., 1995). The effects of agriculture have been both direct (ploughing, cropping and grazing) and indirect (fire